June 23, 2011 by C.J. Mahaney
Categories: Gender
As promised, here's an excerpt from Kevin DeYoung’s message “Who Am I? Humanity in the Eyes of the World and the Christian” from the 2011 Next conference. Here’s the first excerpt, on gender roles, personal identity, and why husbands must not be dictators or doormats:
The world says you are free to create yourself. God says, “You are created to reflect my image.”
What does it mean to be in God’s image? It means we have a certain resemblance to God with our intelligence, our appreciation for beauty, our rationality, and in our capacity for worship and language. It means we represent God, that we have dominion over creation as rulers, as stewards, as those called to cultivate. It means that we are relational beings, interacting with God and with each other so that the image of God consists in these relational virtues of knowledge and righteousness and holiness.
Listen to Colossians 3:9–10: “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” Likewise, Ephesians 4:24 says, “put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” So the restored image of God shows us what sort of image bearers we are. We are those who have the righteousness and holiness that is characteristic of God himself.
Now the world says, “You are not created for divine exaltation. You are here for self-exploration. You are not made to be stamped with a divine impression, but you are here to spend your life on self-expression.”
So we have all these commercials.
Cingular at least used to say, “Express yourself.”
Dr. Pepper, “Be you.”
I am thankful for the Army, but the Army got in on it with, “An army of one.” I don’t know a lot, but what I learned from playing Risk is that even if you have your army of one Kamchatka—you’re gone. You need more.
Our world tells us you are a blank slate. Whatever you choose to paint on the canvas of your life will be beautiful because you painted it. That is what the world says.
Now common sense tells us this does not work in any other area of life. Try it when you have a job selling refrigerators and you don’t sell a single one, and you get fired and you tell your boss, “But I believe in myself.” And he is going to tell you, “Believe in yourself and get somebody else to pay you for it.”
One of the most dangerous areas where we see this self-exploration and self-creation is in the area of gender. In the world’s eyes there is no male/female, masculine/feminine gender. Gender is just cultural, social constructs, antiquated concepts better to be just disregarded, relics of an oppressive, less enlightened past.
But I hope you see how patently unbiblical this is.
“From the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female’” (Mark 10:6).
And we see already in Genesis before the fall that there were distinct, yet complimentary, roles for men and women. Man was given as the name of the human race and he was the one to whom God gave the command. He was the one to be accountable.
Have you ever noticed that after Eve sins by taking a bite of the fruit, who does God first address? Adam. He was to be responsible. And yet he abdicated the very authority that he was supposed to lovingly exercise. And Eve, contrary to design, usurped her husband’s authority.
When you come to Ephesians 5:25 you find the overarching command for the husband to love his wife. The women may think, “Well, that is lame. The husband just gets kind of a freebie. I mean, we have all got to love. I have got to respect and submit.”
No, there is a reason that the husband is told to love in this unique way as the head of his household. It is because the male propensity to sin is to either be a dictator or a doormat. And both are abdications of our responsibility to love. And the woman, her overarching command is to submit to her husband or to respect her husband because, twisted by the fall, her point of sinful inclination is to usurp her husband’s authority.
God has designed us male and female and it is not simply God’s design as his image bearers, but it is actually the way in which the world works best.…
I must stop, but Kevin continues to develop this point in his message, which you can listen to here.
June 22, 2011 by C.J. Mahaney
Categories: Conferences | Sermons
I appreciated and benefitted from all the messages at the Next 2011 conference in Orlando. I would encourage you to set aside some time to listen to all of the messages (you’ll find the main sessions here and the breakout sessions here). But if listening to all these messages is not possible, I would particularly commend Kevin DeYoung’s message, “Who Am I? Humanity in the Eyes of the World and the Christian.”
Kevin structured his message to answer five important questions about ourselves:
- Are we here by chance or by design?
- Are we free to create ourselves or to reflect God's image?
- Are we basically good or fundamentally flawed?
- Are we ethically excusable or morally culpable?
- Are we destined for a happy heaven or a blessed extinction, or are we on the way to heaven or hell?
Kevin summarized his conclusions to these questions like this:
Here are two views of the human person:
According to the world we are here by chance, free to create our own self, basically good, ethically excusable, and destined for a happy heaven or a blessed extinction.
According to God we are here by design, created to reflect God’s image, fundamentally flawed, morally culpable, and destined to worship God in heaven or face his wrath in hell.
You can listen to the whole message here.
Over the next couple of days on the blog I plan to post a few choice excerpts from Kevin’s message.
June 10, 2011 by Tony Reinke
Categories: Newton
“I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,” wrote sailor and poet John Masefield. That is my motto. I love the ocean. In fact I am at the beach right now with my family. But I enjoy the sea as a novice, as one who is little more than an enthusiastic spectator from the seashore. Being a Nebraskan by birth and upbringing, my direct experience with the ocean is quite shallow.
John Newton’s knowledge of the ocean was deep. It was the ocean that provided Newton his early livelihood and it was the ocean that nearly took his life. Whether it was giving or trying to take away, the ocean was a central part of his life for several years.
Even more important to Newton was the gospel. Not surprisingly, in Newton’s writings the greatness of our Savior finds metaphorical expression in the far-reaching limits of ocean. I’m sure he would have agreed with Spurgeon’s often quoted statement: “In Christ’s finished work I see an ocean of merit; my plummet finds no bottom, my eye discovers no shore.”* The ocean in many ways is a suitable metaphor.
The gospel is unfathomable, and that of course means there is always a need for us to grow in our knowledge of the Savior. By grace this is possible—by observation this is necessary.
Newton writes,
Some knowledge of Christ indeed they [Christians] have, which is their differencing character from the world. How small a portion! That they know him a little, is plain, because they love him and trust him; but how little, is plain likewise, because their love is so faint, and their trust so feeble.
Newton elaborates on what these weaknesses expose.
Their doubts, fears, complaints, and backslidings, are so many mournful proofs that they are but poorly acquainted with him; and sufficiently evidence, that a great part of what we account our knowledge, is not real and experimental, but notional only.
The literal sense of what we read concerning Jesus, is attainable by study and human teaching; but the spiritual import can be received only from Him who teaches the heart, who increases it in us by the various exercises and dispensations we pass through; and the best have much more to learn than they have already attained.…
The knowledge of Christ, in the present life, may be compared to the knowledge that a shepherd has of the sea, from having viewed it at the top of a cliff. In a sense, it may be said he has seen the sea; but how little has he seen, in comparison of what lies beyond the reach of his eye! How inadequate is such a prospect to give him an idea answerable to the length, and breadth, and depth, of the immense ocean!**
Yes; or compared to a vacationing Nebraskan’s knowledge of the ocean. It is one thing to stand on the pebbled shore and to look out at a few miles of ocean, but another thing altogether to sail over the top of, or to dive down into the heart of, the wine-dark sea.
So it is with our knowledge of Christ in this life. Saving knowledge of Christ is not an exhaustive knowledge. Newton helps us see this point in two ways.
First, the more we learn the more we see how much more we have to learn. And our ignorance of Christ is behind our waverings, our doubts, our fears, our backslidings. Our propensity to sin reveals the shallowness of our knowledge of the Savior. We must press on not just for more learning, but for more of the experiential knowledge of the gospel, the knowledge that changes our attitudes, our thinking, and our behavior.
Second, a complete knowledge of Christ, like the majority of the ocean, remains beyond the reach of the eye. Right now our knowledge of the Savior is partial and fallible; one day our knowledge of Christ will be full and face-to-face (1 Corinthians 13:12).
A vacationer on the shore, a shepherd on the cliff—neither can see the breadth and length and height and depth of the ocean. Nor do we yet fully comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s love for us shown in the gospel (Ephesians 3:18–19). Like a wide-eyed shepherd looking out from a window seat on a clear day from 40,000 feet over the ocean, one day we will more fully comprehend the dimensions (1 John 3:2).
And we will be stunned.
Tony Reinke serves as the editorial and research assistant to C.J. Mahaney. Reading Newton’s Mail is a series of blog posts reflecting on various published letters written by John Newton (1725–1807), the onetime captain of a slave trading ship—a self-described apostate, blasphemer, and infidel, who was eventually converted by grace. Newton is most famous for authoring the hymn “Amazing Grace,” or maybe for helping William Wilberforce put an end to the African slave trade in Britain. Less legendarily, Newton faithfully pastored two churches for 43 years, a fruitful period of his life when a majority of his letters were written. Reading Newton’s Mail is published on Fridays here on the Cheap Seats blog.
* Charles Spurgeon, sermon: “Bread Enough and to Spare,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. 17 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1872), 389.
** John Newton, The Works of the Rev. John Newton, 3rd ed. (London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co., 1820; Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1985), 2:417–418.
June 8, 2011 by C.J. Mahaney
Categories: Ordinary Pastors
Part 12 in a 12-part series. For the series intro and index, click here.
On the last day there will be a parade of ordinary men, whose names you have never heard, who will hear the following from the Savior: “Well done, good and faithful pastor.”
This parade will include men like Tom Carson.
At the conclusion to the biography of his father, Don Carson writes these words:
Tom Carson never rose very far in denominational structures, but hundreds of people in the Outaouais and beyond testify how much he loved them. He never wrote a book, but he loved the Book. He was never wealthy or powerful, but he kept growing as a Christian: yesterday’s grace was never enough. He was not a far-sighted visionary, but he looked forward to eternity. He was not a gifted administrator, but there is no text that says, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you are good administrators.” His journals have many, many entries bathed in tears of contrition, but his children and grandchildren remember his laughter. Only rarely did he break through his pattern of reserve and speak deeply and intimately with his children, but he modeled Christian virtues to them. He much preferred to avoid controversy than to stir things up, but his own commitments to historic confessionalism were unyielding, and in ethics he was a man of principle. His own ecclesiastical circles were rather small and narrow, but his reading was correspondingly large and expansive. He was not very good at putting people down, except on his prayer lists.
When he died, there were no crowds outside the hospital, no editorial comments in the papers, no announcements on television, no mention in Parliament, no attention paid by the nation. In his hospital room there was no one by his bedside. There was only the quiet hiss of oxygen, vainly venting because he had stopped breathing and would never need it again.
But on the other side all the trumpets sounded. Dad won entrance to the only throne room that matters, not because he was a good man or a great man—he was, after all, a most ordinary pastor—but because he was a forgiven man. And he heard the voice of him whom he longed to hear saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord.*
Pastor, if you find yourself weary and discouraged, meditate on that day. Ponder Paul’s description of the day that is coming for all ordinary pastors who love Christ’s appearing. God himself, with countless reasons to condemn us, will instead commend us—all because of the perfect life and substitutionary death of Jesus Christ.
That is extraordinary grace for ordinary pastors.
The “Ordinary Pastors” blog series is adapted from C.J.’s unpublished chapter by the same title and is scheduled to appear in the Together for the Gospel compilation book, The Unadjusted Gospel (Crossway, 2012). C.J. has contributed chapters in two other similar compilation titles: Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Crossway, 2009) and Preaching the Cross (Crossway, 2007).
* Carson, Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor, 147–148.
June 7, 2011 by C.J. Mahaney
Categories: Ordinary Pastors
Part 11 in a 12-part series. For the series intro and index, click here.
At the outset of this passage (2 Timothy 4:1–5), Paul informs Timothy that he gives this charge in the presence of God (“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus”) and in light of the final Day of Judgment (“who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom”). Paul wants Timothy to be motivated by an eternal perspective.
During a recent NCAA college basketball tournament, I read the following excerpt from a press conference with Bob Huggins, coach of the West Virginia University basketball team:
Predictably, the first question Huggins was asked after his team’s victory had to do with how he felt about being one step from the Final Four so many years after his first—and only—trip to college basketball’s promised land.
“I never look back,” he said, deadpan as always. “I’ve just never been that way.”
Then he told a story. “When I was a kid growing up in West Virginia, I went to play one day,” he said. “I got in a pickup truck in Midvale with a guy and I noticed that he didn’t have a rearview mirror. I said to the guy, ‘Hey, there’s no rearview mirror.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Boy, we ain’t goin’ backwards.’ That’s the way I’ve lived my life."*
There is no rearview mirror in this passage, either. Paul draws Timothy’s attention to the future.
Paul had fulfilled this charge, and he eagerly anticipated his reward: “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day” (v. 8). Those are truly remarkable words. Paul is absolutely certain that he will receive a crown of righteousness.
The Last Day
Pastor, when you imagine the last day, what do you picture? When you contemplate a once-for-all evaluation of your life’s work, do you feel sufficient? Or as you imagine that day, do your failures rise up and accuse you?
It’s easy for us to imagine Paul being commended by the Savior. And it’s easy for us to imagine the extraordinary pastors we know of being commended on the last day. But for us ordinary pastors, what easily comes to mind is a long list of failures, shortcomings, and sin. So often I don’t expect to hear “Well done”—I expect to hear "Nice try."
Ordinary pastor, here’s what you can expect on the last day: a crown of righteousness. You—yes, you—can expect a commendation from the Savior.
Paul will undoubtedly receive commendation. But he writes, “There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” I am so glad he says “not only to me, but also to all.” If he had just said “I will receive a reward,” I would have understood that. Of course Paul will be commended by the Savior! But the good news for ordinary pastors is this: the reward is not unique to Paul. All who have been faithful to this charge will receive their reward. If we are faithful to preach the Word, faithful to fulfill our ministry, and faithful to the Savior, we too can look forward to receiving the Savior’s commendation on the last day.
How can this be? How is it possible that I—who have sinned and so often fallen short—will receive this crown? So much in my life is unworthy of him.
This is where the shadow of the cross falls across this passage. This reward is only possible because of the cross, where sins are forgiven and the service of ordinary pastors is sanctified.
Stop for a moment and think about that day. On that last day there will be a parade of ordinary men, whose names you have never heard, who will hear the following from the Savior: “Well done, good and faithful pastor.”
The “Ordinary Pastors” blog series is adapted from C.J.’s unpublished chapter by the same title and is scheduled to appear in the Together for the Gospel compilation book, The Unadjusted Gospel (Crossway, 2012). C.J. has contributed chapters in two other similar compilation titles: Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Crossway, 2009) and Preaching the Cross (Crossway, 2007).
* John Feinstein, “Bob Huggins Leads West Virginia to a Big Victory in the Sweet 16,” Washington Post, March 26, 2010.
June 3, 2011 by C.J. Mahaney
Categories: Ordinary Pastors
Part 10 in a 12-part series. For the series intro and index, click here.
As Paul begins to summarize the pastoral call, he paints the picture this way: “As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:5). The pastor’s biography should be a simple one:
- he was sober-minded,
- endured suffering,
- did the work of an evangelist,
- fulfilled his ministry.
He is sober-minded, not like those described in verses 3 and 4 who are vulnerable to fads and trends. He is not seduced by novelty or religious innovation.
He also endures suffering. He understands that suffering isn’t rare; it’s the norm. He is not going to avoid it. If you are a faithful pastor, it’s going to happen: you’ll be the target of criticism from within the church and slander from without. You’ll be opposed by the world when you preach the gospel. And you won’t be exempt from the personal suffering that’s part of living in a fallen world—suffering that God will use to accomplish his purposes in your life. God wants you to be confident that he is at work through your suffering, so that you can endure it with a solid, not superficial, joy.
The pastor is to do the work of an evangelist. Even though Timothy is serving in an area where evangelism and church planting are taking place, Paul wants evangelism to remain a passion in his life. This is all too easy for pastors to neglect in their preaching and personal life.
These imperatives combine to make one point: fulfill your ministry. Be faithful. Discharge the full range of your responsibilities. Persevere until the task is complete. Regardless of opposition or apathy, regardless of apparent success or lack thereof, regardless of church size, regardless of suffering—fulfill your ministry.
For the duration of our lives and ministries, we are called to relentless faithfulness. Today, be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Tomorrow, be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Do it today and do it all again tomorrow, and do it all again the day after tomorrow. Keep doing the same things.
In a culture where innovation is paramount, and the calls to produce something new seduce not just the world but also the church, this is wisdom from above: pastor, just keep doing the same thing. No innovation needed. This is what Paul is charging Timothy, and God is charging us, to do: be faithful. Do the same thing. Don’t be distracted by what’s new. Fulfill your charge. And do it all again tomorrow.
The “Ordinary Pastors” blog series is adapted from C.J.’s unpublished chapter by the same title and is scheduled to appear in the Together for the Gospel compilation book, The Unadjusted Gospel (Crossway, 2012). C.J. has contributed chapters in two other similar compilation titles: Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Crossway, 2009) and Preaching the Cross (Crossway, 2007).
Part 9 in a 12-part series. For the series intro and index, click here.
So what are your expectations of those you serve?
Let me recommend a few realistic expectations.
First, I think you should be amazed that those who heard you preach last Sunday come back—and even at times bring guests. No one should be more amazed than the ordinary pastor when people return. Why should I be amazed? Because I preached last Sunday! “If some men were sentenced to hear their own sermons,” Spurgeon said, “it would be a righteous judgment upon them, and they would soon cry out with Cain, ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear.’”* Keep that in mind when you think about your church. We should be grateful they come back.
Second, we should be grateful they stay awake while we are preaching! Here’s something I find great encouragement in: Jonathan Edwards had to address people who were falling asleep in his church. J.I. Packer describes it this way:
In a sermon weightily titled “When the Spirit of God Has Been Remarkably Poured out on a People, a Thorough Reformation of Those Things That Were Before Amiss Amongst Them Ought to Be the Effect of It,” Edwards speaks against sleeping in church and urges that “persons would avoid laying down their bodies in their seats in the midst of public worship."**
I cannot imagine the sight. Edwards looks out during public worship and there is nothing subtle about it: people are stretched out. Edwards did not deserve this. I deserved Northampton; Edwards deserved Covenant Life Church. I can find more than sufficient reason for gratitude in the fact that those in my church—most of them, anyway—stay awake while I am preaching.
If I have realistic expectations of my church, it will be easy for me to be patient even when they (like me) grow slowly.
The “Ordinary Pastors” blog series is adapted from C.J.’s unpublished chapter by the same title and is scheduled to appear in the Together for the Gospel compilation book, The Unadjusted Gospel (Crossway, 2012). C.J. has contributed chapters in two other similar compilation titles: Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Crossway, 2009) and Preaching the Cross (Crossway, 2007).
* C.H. Spurgeon, “The Necessity of Ministerial Progress,” in Lectures to My Students, vol. 2, Lectures, Second Series (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1881; Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publications, 1990), 28.
** J.I. Packer, “The Glory of God and the Reviving of Religion: A Study in the Mind of Jonathan Edwards,” in A God Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards, ed. John Piper and Justin Taylor (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2004), 84n9.
June 1, 2011 by C.J. Mahaney
Categories: Ordinary Pastors
Part 8 in a 12-part series. For the series intro and index, click here.
Sanctification is a process—an extremely slow process—for us all. Comprehending truth, applying truth, mortifying indwelling sin, cultivating the fruit of the Spirit—it’s a process that usually takes place by small increments over a lifetime. Normally, people don’t grow dramatically as the result of a single sermon or sermon series. And neither do you. Look at it this way: for ordinary pastors, the slow process of sanctification is a form of job security.
Too often I expect those I serve to comprehend and apply God’s Word quickly when it has taken me many years. I easily forget how much time my theological journey has taken. I am glad John Newton didn’t forget. As a wise and a patient pastor, he recognized this truth. He wrote,
I have been thirty years forming my own views; and, in the course of this time, some of my hills have sunk, and some of my valleys have risen: but, how unreasonable would it be to expect all this should take place in another person; and that, in the course of a year or two.*
So let me ask you: ordinary pastor, what are your expectations of those you serve? Are you patient with them? Or do you expect them to comprehend quickly what took you years to grasp? Understanding truth takes place slowly and gradually. And applying it takes place slowly and gradually. That is why our preaching must be accompanied with “complete patience” (2 Timothy 4:2).
The “Ordinary Pastors” blog series is adapted from C.J.’s unpublished chapter by the same title and is scheduled to appear in the Together for the Gospel compilation book, The Unadjusted Gospel (Crossway, 2012). C.J. has contributed chapters in two other similar compilation titles: Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Crossway, 2009) and Preaching the Cross (Crossway, 2007).
* Richard Cecil, Memoirs of the Author: And General Remarks on His Life, Connections, and Character, in The Works of the Rev. John Newton, 3rd ed. (London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co., 1820; Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1985), 1:101.